SU sweeps to three easy home wins

Orange rip Eastern Michigan, Long Beach St., Monmouth

Long Beach State defeated two ranked teams last season (Pittsburgh and Xavier), but had lost twice this season in games against ranked opponents (North Caroilna and Arizona). SU would make it three in a row.

Syracuse played an excellent opening 20 minutes of basketball, a contrast to the Eastern Michigan game, where it only made two field goals in an eight-minute span. SU stormed out to a 16-4 lead, grabbing 10 boards to the 49ers' two in the process.

LBSU closed it to 25-19 before the Orange shifted into a higher gear. Cooney connected on a 3-pointer, Jerami Grant buried a 15-foot jumper. Cooney turned a defensive steal into a fast-break dunk, and Triche and Carter-Williams each fired in 3-pointers of their owns to make it 38-26.

Then SU closed out the half with an 11-3 run, sparked by Carter-Williams over shoulder pass to Christmas for a dunk.

Mike Gaffey's jumper at the buzzer for LBSU made it 49-29 at halftime, but the Orange resumed its domination in the second half. SU had struggled shooting the 3 pointer against their previous opponent, but in this game they shot seven-for-15 beyond the arc.

Also, the Orange's 2/3 zone was very active and held LBSU to season-low total of points. SU forced nine second-half turnovers, and scored on 18 fast break points off those blunders.

With that put away, SU turned its attention to Monmouth on Saturday night and got win no. 898 for Boeheim in an even more emphatic effort, crushing the Hawks 108-56.

SU had a season-high seven players score in double figures. Continuing to dominate his opponents, Carter-Williams had 15 points and a career-best 16 assists for his fifth double-double of the season. In addition, Carter-Williams generated five steals and four blocks.

He has reached double digits in assists five times in a span of eight games. And his grand total of 83 assists are 29 more than he had the entire freshman season. Carter-Williams' assist total for the game was the third highest in school history, behind only Sherman Douglas' (22) and Pearl Washington's (18)